Virginia Deane Abernethy, M.B.A., Ph.D., eclectic*
"Eclectic" describes better than any degree, book, or article the news commentary on this website. Its origin could well be history lessons absorbed at my first school, Northlands, the highly regarded British ... more

Goals

Magna Charta [Medieval Latin], the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are reminders of a long tradition and the continuing struggle to uphold the rule of law. This Founding principle of the Republic would decay if ever it were assumed that it was not the responsibilit... more

Switzerland Just Fine Without Selling Illegal Immigration Indulgences

Switzerland Just Fine Without Selling Illegal Immigration Indulgences

My wife and I just returned from a week in that wonderful orderly country of Switzerland, mostly in the city of Basel, which lies on the border of France and Germany. Many French and German nationals commute to Switzerland daily, but return to their homes after work. Immigration works there. The Swiss value citizenship and make it very hard for any immigrant to gain permanent residence. Public transportation in Basel, via trams which run often, makes auto and truck traffic light and the air quality clean. The flow of the majestic Rhine as it turns north at Basel from its east-west flow, sparkles in the morning sunshine.

The Washington Post’s lead editorial of Monday, March 26, 2007, proclaims "Hope for Illegal Immigrants| A bill in the House sounds the opening bell for real reform".

The editorial begins:

"The battle over immigration reform was joined in Congress last week with the introduction of sweeping legislation that would toughen enforcement, tighten border controls and provide eventual citizenship for millions who entered the country illegally. That the opening legislative salvo came in the House, where real reform went nowhere in the last Congress, and that the bill has bipartisan sponsors generated fresh optimism that the broken-down immigration system may be replaced by a workable one. The optimism will be justified, though, only if the White House, which has been trying to coax a consensus on immigration from divided Republican lawmakers, sticks to its guns and fashions a blueprint for action that is both practical and comprehensive."

In truth, this latest attack on American sovereignty and the Rule of Law is neither “practical” nor "comprehensive"…unless you believe in completely open borders and the abrogation of our Rule of Law. This huge bill, which is another cover-up for slave importation by American companies, is unenforceable.

The Post’s editorialists apparently have no concern for American citizens in lauding this 697 page bill submitted, last week by two Congressmen Jeff Flake (R-CO) and Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill), entitled the “Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy" or STRIVE Act. Talk about striving to take a shot at all American citizens and legal residents.

In interviewing Congressman Gutierrez on his 3/22/07 News Hour, Lou Dobbs made these enlightening comments about STRIVE:

"Look at the number of people that come into this country legally every year. Can we do that? We'll look at full screen so the congressman can see this. There's a lot of distortion here. I think it's important to get these facts out. Two million people legally admitted to the United States each year. In addition—14 percent of those, by the way, those people given permanent residency are from Mexico. Two million people legally admitted to the United States. Four hundred thousand skilled foreign workers and their families receive H-1 visas each year.

“Nearly 900,000 other legal foreign workers are admitted on some type of employment visa. Six-hundred sixty thousand student visas are issued every year. And 455,000 people given temporary employment transfers.

Help me out. What are we trying to do here? I mean, we have—we have an—lawful immigration system that brings in 2 million people a year, plus all of these other workers that overwhelms any other immigration system in the world. All of Russia, all of the European Union combined can't even come close to matching our immigration levels. And that's a population 40 percent higher than our own. Help me out." [Transcript]

This legislation is unenforceable, because present immigration regulations are not being enforced. This legislation would result in just another amnesty, added to the six before it. As Dobbs pointed out, counting on the "screwed up" US Homeland Security Department to take on this new complex task, when it can’t even manage the U.S.- Visit program, seems totally unrealistic.

True reform activist, Bay Buchanan, in commenting on this new travesty, notes,

"Before, it was a ‘guest worker’ program, then a ‘temporary worker’" program. We exposed those as amnesties. Now Flake and Gutierrez aren't even pretending they are temporary—they're calling it a ‘new worker program.’ The bill will allow at least 400,000 foreign workers a year. All of these ‘new workers, can apply for citizenship and permanent residency. Do you think we need more immigration? Flake and Gutierrez do. There are nearly a dozen ‘visa reforms’ in this bill that will import more and more foreign workers on top of the ‘new worker program.’ Among the many ‘reforms’ that will increase legal immigration, STRIVE will more double employment based visas from 140,000 to 290,000, and increase H-1B high skilled visas by 30,000 a year."

The Post’s editorial unwittingly pillories itself with its own words when it proclaims,

"Conservatives opposed to citizenship for illegal immigrants are fond of pillorying it as "amnesty." This bill provides nothing of the sort. In addition to requiring (exiting and) lawful reentry to the country [DAC: during the 6 year program!!!!!–my emphasis], it would entail immigrants paying a $2,000 fine and any back taxes they owe, clearing a security and background check, learning English and civics, compiling a felony-free record, and submitting proof of past employment. Only after six years and after satisfying those requirements could workers apply for permanent residency status, which could lead to citizenship."

Imagine trying to follow those bouncing balls! In effect, this bill advocates resurrecting the practice, popular in the Catholic Church before the Reformation, of selling “indulgences , whereby parishioners could pay to have their sins absolved by their priests. These illegal aliens would in effect pay these minuscule "indulgences" to our government to buy their way back in.

Why wouldn’t rich terrorists gladly pay this pittance to stay and form cells which could strike us in our homeland?

This bill does not offer real reform. It simply recycles past bills, such as the McCain/Kennedy bill which passed the Senate last year, S 2611, with a few obfuscating legislative twists, designed to lull voters into thinking it offers true enforcement.

The passage of this bill will ensure that our country will be overwhelmed by cheap labor, a tsunami which will wipe away our tax-supported services, our environment, our civil rights and our public safety. Our children and grandchildren will wonder how we got there.

You may not be there to tell them of our generation’s abject failure to protect their interests. But historians will mark the failure of our leaders to enact real patriotic reform as the beginning of the end of the American Dream.

By the way, don’t think that you can readily flee to Switzerland. The Swiss are too smart to trade massive influxes of aliens for mere money, when order, tranquility, public safety, and a broad middle class are worth so much more.

Donald A. Collins [emailhim], is a freelance writer living in Washington DC and a board member of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. His views are his own.